Thursday, November 20, 2008

Godzilla in OT

Games like the GW game make us wonder why we follow sports as passionately as we do, until a game like the Bucknell game comes along.

John Holland was a MONSTER once the overtime period started, and Bucknell were millions of fleeing Japanese. He dominated. Pounding his chest and screaming after each bucket, you could tell he was not going to allow BU to leave that gym as losers.

That's something we've missed the last couple of years, probably since Rashad Bell left town. Ra-Bell would single-handedly take over games and simply not accept defeat. That toughness factor is back this year, and it's a welcome sight. We would not have won that game last year, there's no doubt about it.

The story of the game, however, hinged on a defensive adjustment made at halftime. Whereas Bucknell was hitting from all over in the first half, they were never allowed to get into any kind of a rhythm in the second. With John Holland on the full-court press and at the top of that zone, the Bison had trouble even finding space and time to take a shot.

Aside from Johnny's rejuvenated play in OT, Corey found his stroke and Jake the Snake got it done again. Tyler, Carlos and Johnny hit their freebies (ahem, Corey). And everybody contributed on defense, especially Matty Wolff who was forced to guard Bucknell's center at the end of the second half and in OT when our big freshmen were both out of the game.

On a personal note, and anyone who watched the streaming Bucknell feed online will agree with me, I couldn't be happier that their d-bag announcer had to go home a loser. He couldn't have been more unprofessional.

Here's looking forward to a win against St. Pete's... in regulation. The boys could use a rest.

7 Comments:

Don't romanticize Mr. Bell too much as a clutch performer. The most memorable game in his career for me was his one man choke job at Stanford in the pre-season NIT, where he coughed up the ball in consecutive possessions down the stretch and lost the lead, and the game.